Chennai, Feb 27 (IANS) A voter turnout of 10.01 per cent voter turnout was registered till 9 a.m in the Erode East bypoll, which got underway amid tight security at 7 a.m on Monday.
Congress leader and DMK front candidate E.V.K.S Elangovan cast his vote and exuded confidence in his front winning with a huge margin.
This result, he said, will have a major bearing on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and added that the DMK-led front will win both the elections.
The by-election to the Erode East Assembly constituency commenced with no untoward incident being reported during the initial hours.
There are 77 candidates in fray for the polls and a mock poll was conducted at 5.30 a.m for the agents of the candidates.
The polling will continue till 6 p.m. As many as 238 polling centres have been set up in 52 places.
A total of 1206 officers, 286 presiding officers, 858 polling officers and 62 additional officers are deployed for the smooth conduct of the elections.
There are 1,430 electronic voting machines and 310 VVPAT machines used for the polling.
The main contest is between the two Dravidian majors, DMK and AIADMK with the former front being represented by Congress leader Elangovan while the AIADMK candidate is former legislator K.S. Thennarasu.
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate, S. Anand and the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) leader Menka Navaneethan are also in the race.
The election was necessitated following the death of sitting legislator E. Thirumahan Everaa and his father and former Union minister EVKS Elangovan is the candidate of the DMK front.
The DMK front has an edge in the polls as it had won the seat in 2021 by a margin of 8094 votes and the Makkal Needhi Maiam(MNM) which had garnered 10,000 votes has also extended its support to DMK led front candidates.
The DMDK candidate S. Anand was asked to remove his poll symbol before entering the polling booth for exercising his franchise.
–IANS
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